INDIANAPOLIS _ If the Nets' only problems in their disappointing 140-131 loss to Indiana Wednesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse were their poor defensive performance and recurring trouble with turnovers, they could live with that because those mistakes are correctable.
But when Jeremy Lin was knocked to the floor with 4:53 left to play and then limped to the locker room having obvious trouble putting weight on his right leg, it undoubtedly gave Nets fans a sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs. The Nets struggled to the worst record in the NBA last season at 20-62 in large part because repeated hamstring injuries limited Lin to only 36 games.
Nets coach Kenny Atkinson reported that Lin has a right knee injury and will be examined Thursday. "It's not a good night for the Nets," Atkinson said. "Not playing well on the road and an injury on top of it. These are the things that make you tougher."
Trailing by 10 shortly after Lin left for the night, the Nets got within four points but couldn't get the stops they needed to come all the way back. D'Angelo Russell provided the high point in his Nets debut with 30 points and five assists. That was a record points total for a Net in his debut. Trevor Booker was terrific off the bench with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Lin racked up 18 points, and the Nets got double figures from Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (14), Caris LeVert (12), Allen Crabbe (12) and DeMarre Carroll (10).
"He's a really good player," Atkinson said of Russell. "He had an excellent preseason. It doesn't surprise me."
But the Nets committed 20 turnovers leading to 25 Pacers points and allowed the home team to shoot 52 percent from the field. The Pacers had eight players in double figures, topped by Victor Oladipo with 22 and Myles Turner and Darren Collison with 21 each.
The defensive breakdown had Atkinson hinting at possible changes. "That was a complete breakdown defensively," Atkinson said. "It was multiple things. It started with transition defense, and then rebounding, they really took it to us.
"The last thing is keeping your man in front of you, and we didn't do any of those things. We have to find guys who want to play defense. We couldn't really guard them."
Atkinson spent the preseason harping on the importance of playing defense and avoiding turnovers on offense. To no avail if the first half was evidence. The Nets committed 13 turnovers leading to 13 easy Pacers points as the home team grabbed a 65-63 halftime lead.
The saving grace was that the Pacers weren't playing much defense, either. They built a nine-point lead at 57-48, but Crabbe fueled a 9-0 run to tie the game, making a steal that led to a Lin layup, blocking a shot that led to a Booker basket and then burying a 3-pointer himself.
Early in the second half, former Net Bojan Bogdanovic had five points in a 10-run that gave the Pacers control at 75-65. Every time the Nets threatened, the Pacers responded with another surge and took a 106-98 lead to the fourth quarter, which began with both Russell and Lin watching from the Nets' bench.
The Pacers' lead reached a high of 13 points just after Russell checked back in with 8:37 left to play, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Quincy Acy and Russell and another short jumper by Russell trimmed the deficit to 119-114. A few minutes later, Lin made his exit, and the loss turned bleak.
